Harry Potter and the Flames of Ruin
by Icelightningz
Summary: Harry Potter, phoenix animagus and last survivor of Hogwarts, lost all his friends and family in the battle to defeat Voldemort and his death eaters. Harry commits suicide using Gryffindor's sword but this isn't the end for him, the magical item sends him back to 1975. Harry seeks to destroy Voldemort once and for all. Post GoF
1. Prologue: The death of Harry Potter

_"I'm going to keep going until I succeed, or die." - Harry Potter_

**Prologue: The death of Harry Potter**

The frosty winds howled in grief and despair at the destruction below. The blood red clouds was like a symbol of death above the ruin that was once the grand castle of Hogwarts. Hundreds of bodies littered the ground of students, teachers and death eaters alike, not recognisable among the piles of corpses.

An entire generation was slaughtered in the battle to secure Hogwarts, the place where students fulfilled their dreams and now a place where dreams were mercilessly crushed by death.

Blood splattered the grounds and all was silent, it was as if the world was giving a moment of silence to mourn the death of so many people. The soundless night gave an ominous feeling, as if the world knew that a terrible event has just happened and there was no way to repair the damage.

Rubble and craters littered the now grassless plains like a god had ripped off chunks of the land and threw aside.

The war was over with the complete annihilation of any sides involved, there was not any survivors to claim victory. Dumbledore had fallen from curses from various death eaters and Lord Voldemort had been slain by the combined efforts of the Hogwarts students.

Suddenly, a body moved. A raven haired boy with eyes like emerald sat up, observing the death and destruction with almost lifeless eyes as if the boy had already died.

Harry Potter let out choked sobs as he saw his best friend Ron lying on the ground killed by a curse meant for Harry.

With Hermione's help, Harry had researched ways to destroy Voldemort`s body and soul completely. The method they had settled on was Phoenix fire. Using various runes and rituals, Harry became the first phoenix animagus in history.

The path to being an phoenix animagus was not easy. One had to be pure of heart to succeed and not be fuelled by hate or revenge.

After acquiring the phoenix form, Harry had become a natural with fire spells such as incendio.

However, the transformation gave him an uncanny fear of water. That one weakness caused Hermione's death, Harry had been unable to save her as she fell from the castle into the lake.

Unfortunately, Harry was not able to practice using his phoenix powers and unable to destroy Voldemort until it was too late.

After killing Sirius, Voldemort started a one on one duel with Harry. During the duel, Harry attempted to activate his phoenix flames but couldn't succeed. As Voldemort shot a killing curse at Harry, Ron intercepted it with his own life. That gave Harry all the rage he needed to burn Voldemort to ashes.

Remus had been killed by Fenrir Grayback. However, he was able to take the blood thirsty werewolf with him as he died.

Harry saw the bodies of his friends and comrades, all the remaining order of phoenix members and the professors, all of them were gone. Not one student of Hogwarts had been spared, they were either killed by fiendfyre or died defending the great hall.

Harry fell back onto the ground, staring dully at the sky. What use was being alive when everyone he cared about was gone?

Magical Britain would probably go extinct in a couple of years, there weren't any younger wizards to take the place of their predecessors.

As he thought more, he found his will to live less. There was no point living in the muggle world, he had no friends or contacts there. Even the Dursleys could not escape the wrath of Lord Voldemort.

Harry laughed hollowly. He was only fifteen and was already considering suicide! What a messed up world he lived. Harry reflected in the muggle world, even the cruellest dictators did not slaughter and entire generation.

Harry wondered what his life would be like if he had never entered the magical world, would he eventually find a career in something he was good at? Would Voldemort enslave the muggles?

There was no point living a life of regret, Harry thought. He might as well join his parents.

Harry stabbed himself in the heart with the sword of Gryffindor. His last thoughts before his vision blackened was how he wished that he could try again.

Harry burst into flames, but from the ashes, nothing emerged.


	2. The birth of Harry Ashfire

Chapter 1 The birth of Harry Ashflame

James Potter was not happy. In fact, he was positively furious. How dare that greasy git get him into trouble! When Snape made some less than complimentary remarks regarding the marauders, he and Sirius threw hexed at the offending Slytherin.

Lily Evans had stepped in and not only disarmed the two of them but had also called Professor McGonagall who gave the troublesome duo detentions for the entire week.

Remus just gave them the "I told you so" speech and Peter was pretending he had nothing to do with them to avoid trouble.

Sirius had once joked that James could be mad at the universe and not be angry at Lily. Sirius was very right. No matter how hard James tried, he could not find it in his heart to blame Lily for his troubles.

Sirius was forced to complete some nastily exhausting homework. James was very glad he had asked Remus for help beforehand as Remus was refusing to help Sirius on grounds "insulting another student".

Couldn't Remus see that Snape was barely human?

James had felt betrayed when Remus was made a prefect but this was going too far. If Remus kept this up, James found that he might be forced to expel Remus from the marauders.

The more James thought about it, the more he hated Snape. He was tired of seeing Snape's sneering face and hated the way Snape snooped around them hoping to find some evidence to get the marauders expelled.

As far as James was concerned, Snape existing is a crime.

The marauder's greatest achievement , though no one knew it yet, was becoming animagi.

Sure, it was illegal, but when had that stopped him the past?

Their purpose of becoming animagi was to accompany Remus on his lonely night of being a werewolf every month. If he kicked out Remus them being animagi was pretty pointless, James reflected guiltily.

James was now taking advantage of his animagus form, the stag, to blow off some steam in the forbidden forest.

The sun was halfway beneath the horizon so the shadows of the forbidden forest enveloped James completely. If anyone looked outside, they would not see James at all.

By the time James finished his stroll around the forest, the sun had completely vanished.

Worried about what questions his dorm mates would ask about why he was not in bed, James hurried back.

What he saw next made him forget all his troubles.

A burst of fire exploded next to the whomping willow revealing a dark haired boy. What was horrifying was the amount of blood he was covered in and the sword sticking out of his chest.

James broke free from the shock and forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be out of bed, ran towards the headmaster's office.

By the time he reached the office, James remembered that he did not know how to get in. "Open!" No response. "Open you stupid thing!" This attracted the attention of Professor McGonagall who was walking down the hallway.

"James! What are you doing outside after curfew?" McGonagall said sternly.

It's an emergency!" James pleaded. "How do I get in?"

"Tell me what's wrong," McGonagall demanded.

"There's a severely injured person beside the whomping willow!"

"What?" McGonagall 's face pales. "The password is Sugar quills." She rushed off towards the entrance hall.

"Sugar quill!"

The gargoyles moved aside and James entered, pushing open the office door.

"Headmaster! Injured person! whomping willow!"

"My boy, what is going on? Please explain more clearly." Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling like the constellations.

"There was this person that suddenly appeared in a explosion of fire! He was impaled by this sword and there was blood everywhere.

The twinkle left Dumbledore 's eyes. He rushed out, James following. The prefects on patrol wondered what had gotten the headmaster in a rush and what James was doing.

When they reached the whomping willow, Professor McGonagall was already there along with Madam Pomfrey.

The mediwitch was trying to remove the blade while staunching the blood flow. Professor McGonagall stood to one side watching.

"I don't believe I have seen this person in my class," McGonagall told Dumbledore

Dumbledore nodded. James realised that the boy was about his age.

Finally, Madam Pomeroy succeed in patching up the boy's wound and the professor s levitated him to the hospital wing.

"How did he get here?" McGonagall asked.

"There was this burst of fire and he just appeared!" James explained.

"There are apparition wards around the castle," Dumbledore told James. "Are you sure he wasn't here before!" James shook his head.

"The only creatures known to appear in a ball of fire are phoenixes," Dumbledore frowned.

They reached the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey instantly went getting various potions and balms to quicken healing and patch up the broken flesh.

James could barely watch as various medicines were applied to the boy's practically ruined chest. He did not know how he had survived after losing that much blood.

"He's waking up!" Madam Pomfrey told Dumbledore.

Harry's vision cleared and he woke up to familiar faces, but unfamiliar words.

"Who are you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Harry knew this wasn't the same man that had mentored him.

He did not know where he was and why he was still alive, but it appeared that this man did not know him.

It appeared that he was in the Hogwarts Hospital wing which he remembered to have been burned down by Bellatrix Lestrange.

Behind the Dumbledore look alike was someone who appeared to be McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey was grabbing potions.

But that was impossible. They were all dead.

Either Harry had finally gone insane or he had actually died.

If Harry had died, he would not be feeling pain. His chest was hurting very much.

Harry decided to play it safe and figure out some more things before he said anything of importance.

After all, Harry thought, now he was as paranoid as Moody.

So Harry gave a name that appealed to his phoenix form and represented the way he left.

"I'm Harry Ashfire."


	3. Return to Hogwarts

Chapter 2 Return to Hogwarts

Dumbledore was suspicious of this boy.

How he had passed through Hogwarts's legendary apparition wards and why he had been impaled by a sword was a pretty big indication of abnormality.

A new dark lord was on the rise known as Lord Voldemort and though not many people knew it, he had been Dumbledore's former pupil.

Lord Voldemort was gathering followers from all over the country and Dumbledore suspected that most of the Slytherin seventh years had already been recruited.

The magical world was already in panic due to the new threat.

Voldemort hand many powerful allies and soon, he would be able to take over magical Britain.

Dumbledore knew that Voldemort had his eyes on Hogwarts, he had tried to apply as potion professor but Dumbledore suspected he was trying to learn Hogwarts' secrets and declined his application. Now he was glad he had.

Dumbledore needed to make sure this boy one of Voldemort's servants.

"You are dismissed Mr Potter."

Harry thought Dumbledore was referring to himself when instead, another boy complied.

Harry looked at him. No way. The other boy was exactly like Harry when he was slightly younger but instead of green eyes, he had hazel.

There was only one person that could be. James Potter.

The ministry had tried to arrest Harry on terms of murdering Cedric to hush up Voldemort's return. What were they thinking, Voldemort would leave if everyone kept quiet?

Harry was on the run with Sirius for a few months traveling the countryside and his trademark short messy hair had grown longer and a fringe now covered his scar completely.

Harry's resemblance to James was noticeable, but not distinct.

Everyone said time travel was impossible but Harry was not a normal person.

Either I've finally snapped or this is very much real, Harry thought. However, that explained why both professor Dumbledore and McGonagall looked younger and why Hogwarts was still standing.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor!" McGonagall added as James began to leave. "What!" he protested.

"Be grateful I only took twenty points off. If you hadn't saved Mr Ashfire's life, then I would have taken fifty points and another week of detention.

James left after taking another look at Harry.

Professor McGonagall left the room and Madam Pomeroy left to go and make medicines out of god knows that is kept in her secret stores.

Dumbledore believed most important questions must be asked first.

"Who stabbed you with a sword?"

"I did."

Interesting, Dumbledore thought.

"And why would a boy like you be having thoughts of suicide?"

Harry thought it was a logical question.

In an ideal world, fifteen year olds shouldn't have to fight wars and watch everyone die around him. But in an ideal world, there would be no wars at all so there was no point in thinking that way.

So he remained in silence.

"Where are your parents?"

"Dead."

"Other family members?"

"Deceased."

"Age?"

"Fifteen?"

"Where do you live?" Silence.

Oddly enough, the boy wasn't volunteering any information. Someone else in this situation would spill as much about themselves as possible. Either he had something to hide or he didn't have any info to give.

"Do you have any contacts?"

"No."

Dumbledore could see no more important questions he needed to ask. "Very well. I'll see if I can find anyone that knows you or your family. Good luck on finding a contact of someone who technically wasn't born yet, Harry thought bitterly. In this brand new misadventure, he would get no help whatsoever.

Harry started to formulate a plan of action. Voldemort hasn't attacked yet and only has four horcruxes, the locket, the ring, the diary and the cup so if Harry was able to destroy them all and kill Voldemort, the casualties of the first and second war will be prevented.

He pushed his financial problems and the thoughts of whether he would be able to stay in the past to the back of his mind. Harry didn't care much for the complications in the plan, as long as he knew what to do, he was happy.

Would he be able to stay at Hogwarts? Hopefully he could get to know his father, Sirius and Remus when they were younger and more importantly, prevent his father's death.

Pettigrew. That traitor was still alive and kicking. Harry felt like rushing to the boy's dormitory and strangling Peter, animagus form or not. But Harry needed to bide his time and hopefully make things right.

Fortunately, he still had his phoenix feather wand which was immune to phoenix fire.

James had said that Harry appeared in a ball of fire, Harry thanked the gods that all of his clothes were resistant to fire. Teleporting into Hogwarts without clothes would have been embarrassing.

In his pockets were only a few galleons, a shrunken firebolt, a potions kit and there was still Gryffindor's sword which he hoped Dumbledore wouldn't confiscate.

_ flames_

With those thoughts, Harry fell asleep, waiting to see what tomorrow would bring.

James was still half asleep when he came down to breakfast the next day. The Prewitt brothers shot him suspicious looks.

"Where were you James?" Sirius inquired. "Gideon and Fabian were getting suspicious. Did you set up another prank without telling us?"

"No, something really weird happened." James recounted his chilling tale. "But the Hogwarts wards are impenetrable!" Remus cut in. "Dumbledore said the exact same thing." James told him.

"This is suspicious. The dark lord is rising and out of nowhere a random stranger just appears."

James had to agree with that statement.

"Do you reckon his a," Sirius leaned forward, "death eater?"

"Guys! We shouldn't jump to conclusions!" Remus protested. The other three ignored him.

"Do you here Dumbledore question him?" Sirius asked.

"No, Dumbledore kicked me out."

"I say we keep an eye on him," Peter suggested. Everyone had almost forgotten he was there.

"Onto less disturbing matters," James wanted to think about something else. The boy had seemed very familiar and those green eyes looked just like Lily's.

Lily. That thought instantly made him forget everything else.

Lily still refused to date him. James had asked Lily to Hogsmead a dozen times this month. Each time, she either insulted him or gave him a good slap.

He felt jealous of Frank Longbottom who had managed to get one of the hottest girls in their year, Alice. However, James thought Lily was prettier. Her flaming red hair and cute green eyes were all he could think about.

James was snapped out of his thoughts by Sirius pinching him. "Thinking about Lily again?" James started to protest but Sirius held up a hand." The dreamy look in your eyes says it all."

"James! Sirius! Classes are starting soon!" Peter called from the other side of the hall. The troublesome duo rushed off to class.

James' troubles were pushed out of his mind by the urgency of not being late.

_ flames_

Dumbledore paced in his office.

Who was this mysterious stranger?

He could sense overwhelming magical power, not unlike that of Tom Riddle.

He suddenly suspected this boy might be Tom in disguise but dismissed the thought, Tom's magic was too tainted with dark magic.

Dumbledore didn't know why, but he had a feeling that this boy would be important in the war to come.

Why he was pondering, he felt a flash of light illuminate the room behind him.

It was a tapestry listing all the students attending next year. To his astonishment, a new name joined the list, Harry. Just Harry, no middle name, no last name.

How peculiar.

It appeared Ashfire was not the boy's real name or else it would have appeared on the tapestry.

Never has a name appeared without a last name.

This added to the growing mystery of Harry Ashfire.

There were more important matters to think about, such as Lord Voldemort's growing threat. Many of the pureblood families followed the dark lord as they were afraid the muggleborn would takeover. The rest followed him so they could kill and torture without consequence.

The powered of Lord Voldemort surpasses even Grindelwald and he had the aid of the elder wand. Dumbledore shuddered to think what would happen if Voldemort took the elder wand.

To counter Voldemort, Dumbledore began the order of the phoenix.

So far, Charles Potter and his family were eager to join, the Bones and the Prewitt had also joined their cause. The Longbottom family had been one of the earlier victims and they also joined the order.

The order was meant to fight back against the death eaters as the auroras were far too slow and many were undercover death eaters.

Dumbledore knew there were many spies in the ministry but he had yet to find who.

House rivalries at Hogwarts were worse than ever and many Slytherins had been injured due to the marauders' so called 'harmless pranks'.

The marauders were one of the only reasons laughter still rang in this school.

Tensions in the school were higher than ever and many muggleborn travelled in groups to avoid being assaulted by wannabe death eaters.

It was only a matter of time before things turned serious.

Dumbledore knew Voldemort wanted this school and the secrets within and after he succeeds in conquering the ministry, Hogwarts would undoubtedly be his next target.

It was times like this when Dumbledore felt every single one of his ninety four years.

Dumbledore sighed and leaned back in his chair, hoping for the best.


	4. Meet the Marauders

Chapter 3 Meet the Marauders

Harry sat in the headmaster's office, wondering what this meeting could possibly be about.

The headmaster's office looked almost exactly like what it looked twenty years later, perhaps lacking some instruments.

Fawkes was sitting in his usual spot, eyeing Harry with interest.

"Lemon drop Mr Ashfire? It is a muggle sweet I am quite fond of."

Harry declined politely.

"It is come to attention that Hogwarts has accepted you as a new student," Harry's eyebrows shot up. "I know magical schools accept students at the age of eleven, but apparently, Hogwarts has just made you an exception," Dumbledore continued.

Outwards, Harry looked calm, but inside, his mind was whirling with possibilities. Could he get to know his parents at last, maybe even stop Pettigrew from becoming a traitor!

However, he remembered the words of his friend Hermione, "_terrible things have happened to wizards who have messed with time." _ But he wasn't about to back out, he would take a chance and make things better,

"So Mr Ashfire, Do you accept? You can take the same classes as the sixth year students."

"I accept."

"Very good, Professor McGonagall will let you choose your classes. Do you need an escort to Diagon Alley to purchase supplies? It is very dangerous these days.

Harry heard the implied meaning, death eaters were about.

"I can take care of myself thanks."

"Very well, you may go Mr Potter. If you need help around the castle, turn to the prefects for help. They'll be wearing gold badges."

Dumbledore watched as the young man left the room, he would keep an eye on him while he was at Hogwarts, mean while, there were more pressing matters to attend to.

"Nicholas!" he called through the floo.

Harry was walking down the stairs when he froze, Flamel? What was he doing here? He silently crept back up the staircase.

As he pressed his ear against the door he heard the two talk, "Any leads Flamel?" "I believe I have a way the dark lord is keeping himself alive," Flamel replied.

"What may that be? " "A terrible, truly horrendous method, the death of a human to split the soul and placing it into a object or familiar."

"Impossible, Dumbledore gasped, "You can't possibly mean horcruxes?"

Harry was interested, horcruxes? Dumbledore didn't mention anything about them in the old timeline.

"Even more, I've found they have another effect, they can posses living objects or sway them.

"As in like the imperious curse?"

"No, it has a more profound effect. It causes the darker side of ones to show. Very dangerous indeed, I thought such knowledge had been lost."

"How are they destroyed?" Dumbledore inquired.

"They can only be destroyed with powerful substances, such as basilisk venom or in extreme heat such as fiendfyre or dragon fire."

"I will look into this." Dumbledore replied slowly.

"Very well, see you soon old friend!" With that Flamel left through the floo.

Harry distinctly remembered Nicholas Flamel hadn't taken sides in the climax of the first war, what had changed his mind?

Even more interesting was the information about the horcruxes, how had he been able to destroy Voldemort when they existed?

Harry crept down the stairs, still thinking.

_Flames_

So there he was, at the place that had been his point of entry into the magical world, the place where so much death and destruction had happened, also known as Diagon Alley.

It looked generally the same but much less crowded with shops and Knockturn Alley didn't look so dark and disturbing.

For his electives, Harry had chosen ancient runes, care of magical creatures and arithmancy. Harry had after all been to a muggle school so maths was no stranger to him. Harry reflected that he should have taken those classes in his third year instead of divination.

He needed to buy a runes kit and he already had a potions kit on him.

Harry thought he needed an owl when he remembered the depressing fate of his loyal owl Hedwig, she was carrying an urgent message from Ginny when she was shot down by death eaters.

That made him think about Ginny and the pain of losing her came back again but he firmly pushed the thoughts to the back of his brain, mourning will not help him.

He looked across the street and thought about what happened to Diagon Alley.

**Flashback**

_"__Attack!" Kingsley Shacklebolt charged at the enemy, Neville and Tonks to either side of him. The volley of spells hit the death eater ranks. _

_Not expecting resistance, the order of phoenix had a brief moment of advantage. They weren't using stunning spells like Dumbledore told them to but were using full on cutting curses and reductos._

_Harry and Ginny snuck through the shops trying to get to the Weasley's wizarding wheezes. Fred and George were the main targets of this raid._

_Ginny silently threw piercing curses at the death eater bunch._

_Suddenly, a stray spell struck Kingsley in the chest, causing his heart to stop. Death was instantaneous. _

_Encouraged by the success, a cutting curse hit Tonks in the knee and she went down. Neville grabbed her and portkeyed them to safety. _

_"__There!" The death eaters had spotted them!_

_The duo rolled to avoid the wave of killing curses and ran towards the shop where the Weasley twins were still trapped inside. Harry drew the sword of Gryffindor and cut down the death eaters standing at the gateway._

_"__What are you two doing here?" Fred yelled._

_George was at the window firing curses._

_"__We're trying to help!" Ginny shot back._

_"__Leave! George called, "there's too many of them!"_

_"__We can't leave any way! They've surrounded the shop!" Harry replied._

_Suddenly, two death eaters portkeyed into the shop. Harry and Ginny cut them down before they could utter a curse._

_Fred said excitedly," I can reprogram their portkey!"_

_Fred tinkered with the portkey as the other three shot spells into the death eater crowd. Luckily, it appeared none of them had a portkey with them._

_Just as Fred finished, George was hit straight in the face by a killing curse._

_"__Go!" Fred pushed the portkey in Harry and Ginny's hands and detonated the infamous Weasly firebomb. "NOOOOO!" Ginny screamed as she and Harry portkeyed away and Diagon Alley exploded._

That had been a terrible day, the rest of the Weasly family were in depression of weeks.

Harry swore he would change things.

After purchasing his runes kit, Harry went into the apothecary.

As he checked out the owls, he heard a voice,** "Stupid human, put me in a cage."**

The voice sounded very familiar. It came from a small green snake.

She saw Harry look at her.

**"****Stupid human, staring at me like I'm a display."**

**"****Not very creative huh?" Harry teased out of earshot of the other customers.**

**"****A speaker! A honour to meet you!"**

**"****Would you like me to buy you?"**

**"****It'll be an honour to be a speaker's familiar!"**

**"****What's your name?"**

**"****Nagini!"**

Harry stared incredulously. This was the snake that became Voldemort's familiar and horcrux?

**"****Something wrong?"**

**"****No, just wondering."**

"How much is the snake?" Harry asked politely.

"Ten galleons. It has a nastly temper I tell you! It is scheduled to be turned into potion ingredients next week."

"Potion ingredients?"

"Yep, and good riddance I say!" Harry shuddered, no wonder Nagini had been so eager to become Voldemort's familiar.

So instead of a owl, Harry came out with a snake on his shoulder.

Next, he went to Knockturn Alley to purchase some less than legal items, such as a non-ministry approved portkey building set and a enchanted knife.

He also bought a wand holster from Ollivanders which was warded against accio and expelliamous.

All in all, it was good day so far.

_Flames_

Harry joined Hogwarts at the end of Christmas break when Dumbledore gave his announcements.

"Students of Hogwarts! I am pleased to announce an addition to our ranks, Harry Ashfire!"

Harry looked down into the students, he saw many familiar faces.

He saw Sirius, joking around with James. At the prefects group was red haired girl with green eyes, definitely his mother.

They were many other he recognised such as Remus Lupin reading and Severus Snape with the usual sneer on his face.

When the polite applause died down, Harry saw Sirius looking at him suspiciously.

"He will now be sorted."

The sorting hat was placed on Harry's head.

"We meet again Mr Potter," the sorting hat said.

"Pleasure to meet you too, just hurry up and put me in Gryffindor."

"How Slytherin of you Mr Potter. I see you have a snake hidden under your coat. I believe the house of snakes is the place for you."

Harry grabbed the rips in hat which was it's mouth.

"Say Slytherin and I will burn you to ashes with phoenix fire and disperse in the wind!"

"Ah, spoken like a true Gryffindor. There's no other place for you then. Go back to GRYFFINDOR!"

The table in red and gold cheered as Harry joined them.

He saw Sirius once again glare at him suspiciously.

Harry wondered what it was about and tucked into the feast. The house elves' work was as good as ever.

"Did you see him? He grabbed the sorting hat's mouth!" Sirius said angrily.

"So?" James replied, his mouth full of food."

"He manipulated the hat is what happened!" Sirius explained heatedly, "you can make the hat put you into a house if you try hard enough, the hat was all for putting me in Slytherin but a I convinced it otherwise."

"So you are implying…" James said slowly, realizing.

"He should have gone to Slytherin!" Sirius went straight to the point. "He must be a spy for the dark lord!"

"We must not jump to conclusions Sirius!" James told him.

"But he had snake and talked to it!"

"What? The last person to speak to snakes was the dark lord himself!"

"Exactly!"

James looked at the new boy with interest. Sure enough, a snake's head poked out from between Harry's robes and hisses, grabbing a chunk of chicken.

As he was pondering this, Remus walked by.

"You notice how he looks so much like you James?"

"Who?"

"Who do you think? The Ashfire guy. His hair is exactly the same colour as you and his build and height are also similar. His eyes are as green as Lily's. It is as if you two had a son, he would look like that."

Remus then walked off.

Remus was right! Ashfire did have bright green eyes like emeralds.

Then, he was pulled into a daydream of him and Lily and all further thoughts of Ashfire was forgotten.

Meanwhile, further down the table, Lily also noticed the emerald eyes. None of her parents had green eyes so it was a mystery of why she had them.

She was very different from Petunia and looked nothing like her parents at all. Could she be adopted? And could this boy have a connection to all this?


	5. The master plan

Chapter 4 the master plan

Harry's first day had been relatively good.

Due to the training Bill Weasley and Dumbledore had given him, runes were fairly easy.

Arithmancy had been an extreme pain. How Hermione managed it he had no idea, but after that class, Harry had a massive headache. The various complicated number charts and stuff about 'lucky numbers' were really confusing. At least it was better than divination.

Potions had been a laugh, because of the many time Harry needed to use blood replenishing potions, he'd become an expert.

In fact, any potion to heal or give an edge in combat he all knew. From skele-grow to draught of dreamless sleep and even felix felicis, he knew off by heart.

Professor Slughorn had been amazed when he saw Harry's potion, and which such ease he had produced it.

"Simply marvellous! Such fine technique!"

Then he made Harry promise to join the slug club, which was some kind of meeting for 'special' students or students with important families.

When Harry returned to his seat, he found Lily and Snape looking at him with competitive looks upon their face. They weren't about to be bested by a newbie was the meaning thrown at Harry.

Transfiguration was a breeze with the many times Harry had to block incoming killing curses with transfigured objects.

Last of all was defence against the dark arts, Harry's favourite session if it wasn't for the amounts of defence against the dark arts teachers trying to kill him.

The teacher was, surprisingly, Nicholas Flamel.

He taught various offensive spells and counter jinxes. Harry was surprised by the variation of spells and curses taught, Harry was certain the piercing curse was taught in seventh year and the destroying curse wasn't taught in Hogwarts at all.

Of course, he knew all these spells.

Dumbledore taught him practically every spell he knew and gave him book known as 'a collection of spells to ensure survival'.

"There's more than 200 spells in there Harry, even I haven't learned them all," Dumbledore told him.

The collection of spells had been 'interesting' to say the least.

Half the spells were curses and a quarter considered dark, ten spells were actually illegal.

Harry's partner was Sirius Black.

Sirius glowered at him. Harry was confused to find that Sirius was very hostile towards him.

Gideon and Fabian, Molly Weasley's brothers had been fairly welcoming but James looked at him with suspicion.

"Those two can be big gits at time," said Remus when Harry confided in him, "they'll get around eventually."

In this DADA lesson, Sirius looked eager to pound Harry into the ground.

"Begin!" Flamel called.

Sirius started on the offensive throwing two stunning curses. Harry blocked them easily and dodged a disarming spell. Three more spells later, Sirius was getting frustrated. He hadn't landed a single hit yet as his opponent weaved through his spell work.

As Sirius stopped to catch his breath, Harry shot a disarming spell at him. Sirius dodged right into the path of a piercing curse which broke his magical shield easily. Another disarmed him.

"That isn't fair!" Sirius shouted, red faced, "he used dark spells!"

"Piercing curse is hardly a dark spell," Flamel said sternly, "defeat is defeat, don't blame your opponent."

So Harry left with Sirius' glares scorching his back.

Feeling depressed, Harry left for his sanctuary, the library.

If only Hermione could see me now, he thought.

Another wave of depression struck him.

**Flashback**

_"__Come on boys!" Hermione yelled as she finished another death eater._

_She was no longer the bookish pacifist she had been but a cold hardened killer._

_Ron's bombarda spell blew up a werewolf horde beneath the castle. The trio fought their wave up the castle, slaughtering anyone who dared to stop them._

_The Golden Trio done so much together that they knew each other's moves completely._

_Harry impaled Rowle with a swing of his sword and sent another nameless death eater flying off the castle. The battlements had been overrun due to a death eater air assault and the battle raging below the ground was going badly without the support of the snipers._

_Harry knew must they needed to defeat the death eaters quickly before their forces below gave out._

_He stepped over a corpse and found that it was the lifeless body of Dean Thomas, felled by a killing curse. Beside him was Seamus Finnigan hit by a blood boiling curse._

_How many of my friends will die before I succeed? Harry thought with despair._

_Poor brave Colin Creevey was killed trying to protect his yearmates._

_The bodies of the Patil twins were also close by though killed in much more creative ways._

_Ron knew what he was thinking. "Don't blame yourself, it isn't your fault."_

_They followed Hermione up to the astronomy tower. Hermione slashed the Carrows to pieces with a knife, and the bloodlust in her eyes would make the bravest men fearful._

_Ron followed with another explosion. "Bombarda maxima!"_

_Harry saw what would happen before Ron did._

_"__Hermione! Behind you!"_

_But it was too late. Hermione was standing too close to the edge and the reductor curse collapsed entirely, she fell to the ground below._

_Without thinking, Harry turned into a phoenix and swooped down. Hermione fell towards the lake as Harry dived closer. Suddenly a huge wave hit Harry in midair, putting out some of his fire. Harry didn't recover quick enough to save Hermione._

_She slammed into the lake surface, dying instantly._

_Harry heard a cry of grief above, Ron had seen what happened above._

Harry started studying, trying very hard to forget those thoughts. Soon he was buried in a pile of arithmancy books.

_Flames_

"James! I'm telling you! He uses dark curses!"

"Sirius, a piercing curse isn't considered dark."

"He looks too much like Regulus for my tastes.'

"Looking like your brother does not make him dark."

"But he is."

James was tired of Sirius trying to tell him that Harry Ashfire was a dark wizard.

Sure he talked to snakes but every light wizard stop themselves from being put in Slytherin.

James never told Sirius, but the hat had tried to put James in Slytherin. Luckily, he'd managed to stop the hat with threat of stuffing it in the toilet.

What if Ashfire was a spy? That thought nagged at the back of his mind. Could Ashfire be a death eater in disguise?

Then he saw Snape.

"Oi Snivellus! Gone to boil your head in the cauldron?"

"Shut it Potter!"

"Are preparing to serve the dark lord and grovel at his feet?" Sirius added maliciously.

"Sirius! Stop it!" Lily screamed across the corridor. Lily, coming to the defence of Snape again. What did she see in that monster? His head filled with images of Snape giving a rose to Lily. That thought made him even angrier.

"Do us a favour and go hang yourself!" James snarled.

Snape pulled out his wand and before Lily could do anything, Sirius hexed him.

Snape flinched in pain.

"How's your insane mother doing? Has she committed suicide yet? Or does she not have the guts?"

That was one impressive insult.

Snape couldn't find any insults towards Sirius so aimed at James instead.

"Still so full of yourself Potter? No matter how arrogant you are, you still can't get a decent girlfriend!" That insult was meant to imply that James will never get Lily as a girlfriend.

James went over the edge. "Diffindo! Diffindo! Diffindo!"

As the three cutting curses flew out his wand, out of nowhere, Ashfire leaped straight into the path of the cutting curses. Blood flew everywhere. The power of James' anger had increases the spell power by two fold. Three large gashes appeared on Harry's arm, shoulder and waist.

He did not seemed fazed. There was pure rage in his eyes as he stared at James not noticing the blood freely flowing down his arm and body.

"What were you thinking? You could have killed him if that hit him in the neck or cut off one of his limbs!"

James could find no reply, he was too surprised.

"What is going on?" McGonagall screeched at the sight of Harry covered in blood. A crowd had also formed around the incident.

"This –student just threw three almost lethal curse at another student," Harry spat as blood continued to drip around him. "Luckily I managed to intercept the curses before a spell reached Snape's neck and killed him."

McGonagall was shocked. The student and just taken three direct cutting curses and didn't even seem affected. She was however proud that one of her cubs protected a student from another house. "Mr Potter and Mr Black! A hundred points from Gryffindor and detention with Filch for a month! Mr Ashfire, come to the hospital wing now!"

That was all it took to make James believe Ashfire was a evil student in disguise.

_Flames_

A blood replenishing potion and a few healing balms later, Harry felt better, if not still a bit sore.

He had used to believe his father was some kind of hero in school, but realised he was just a pompous git, more like Malfoy than himself.

If he hadn't matured in his seventh year Lily would have never fallen for him at all.

Harry returned to the Gryffindor dorms, glaring at James while he passes.

It was time to make some long term plans.

After pulling down the curtains of his bed, he erected a few privacy charms and ensured no one could pull open the curtains.

On the top of the page, he wrote Horcruxes.

For him to have destroyed Voldemort, all the horcruxes must have already been destroyed, probably by accident. Gringotts had blown up, so one of the horcruxes must have been in there. Who wouldn't want to put their most precious belongings in a vault! Unfortunately, looking for an item in Gringotts was like looking for a sesame seed in a city.

He wrote that beneath possible locations.

What had Flamel said? Horcruxes could poess! The diary had processed Ginny Weasley in his second year, it had felt very evil, it must have been a horcrux!

That reminded him about the chamber of secrets, he had a basilisk to slay.

He then remembered similar sense of evil coming from a locket in Grimmauld place, that must also be a horcrux. Harry cursed, he had no way of knowing where either of those items were, the diary had been held by Lucius Malfoy and the locket a procession of Kreacher.

Maybe in Malfoy manor? He added that to possible locations.

Nagini had had a aura of evil too, but now he had Nagini so she couldn't be a horcrux.

Harry had a hunch that Voldemort only used significant items as horcruxes, Voldemort only ever used the best of everything.

He could probably predict the rest of the horcruxes after he obtained the locket.

Suddenly he jumped, how could he have been so stupid? The room of requirement was a perfect place to hide objects of pure evil! That was added to possible locations. He needed to check there as soon as he got the chance.

Knowing Voldemort, Harry was certain that he would attack Hogsmeade soon just for the sake of spreading panic. He'd probably strike right when the students were visiting just to give a warning to the world; you aren't safe, neither are your children.

Harry wandered why Sirius disliked him, he wasn't in Slytherin and hadn't done anything to provoke him.

Harry sighed, that was all he had for now, hopefully more leads would pop up. There wasn't anything else.


	6. Basilisk round two

Chapter 5 Basilisk round two

Harry had a sense of déjà vu as he slid into the tunnel that led to Salazar's secret den, aka the chamber of secrets. He couldn't flame teleport in as he did not know the exact location of the chamber.

He thought about his week at Hogwarts which had been average, the highlight had been the Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw quidditch match, with the claws flattening the puffs 330-50.

Harry had gained a certain amount of respect after leaping into the path of three cutting curses. The rage in his eyes told the other students he was not a wizard to be messed with.

Unfortunately, that had caused James to join in Sirius in his cause to spy on one Harry Ashfire.

The slug club had introduced Harry to several people but the one person that interested him most as his mother. She was Slughorn's favourite student much to the disgust of the pureblood supremacists.

Many other notable members had been there including Frank Longbottom, Severus Snape and, surprisingly, Remus Lupin.

Remus had pulled him aside after a meeting. "My idiotic friends James and Sirius believe you will be the next dark lord. Watch out okay!" Harry thanked Remus profusely. He still wondered why James and Sirius considered him dark though.

Finally, he had found a night which was homework free and snuck out of the common room.

Sirius had trailed Harry from the Gryffindor common room all the way down to the library but luckily, the marauder's map was not invented yet otherwise Harry would be in _Sirius_ trouble. A few left turns left the Black in the dust.

Moaning Myrtle was still residing in the girl's bathroom, looking the same as she would twenty years later.

She jumped as Harry hissed in parseltongue. _Open_

"Are you that- that person?" she glared, much unlike her usually, well _moaning _personality.

"No," Harry answered quickly, "I'm here to kill the monstrous being and avenge you.

She looked very surprised. "Be on your way then, and good luck!"

As Harry slid down the tunnel, he wondered if this was a very smart idea to fight a thousand year old giant serpent without any means of support.

It wasn't the first time he entered nearly impossible battles, and it certainly won't be the last.

The maze of tunnels was certainly confusing but Harry had been here once before and knew the way. Harry noticed the basilisk's shed skin was not here like last time.

_Speak to me, Salazar Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four, _Harry hissed.

Salazar definitely had a big ego, harry decided, his choice of a password was certainly boastful.

Like Hogwarts itself, the chamber remained unchanged for decades, centuries even. The statue of Salazar Slytherin stood at the end of the chamber.

Well, here goes nothing. Harry covered his eyes and sent five reductos in rapid succession, blasting the accursed statue to bits just as the snake attempted to get through. The basilisk's roar could be heard thorough the school, waking most of the student population.

Knowing that the basilisk' eyes were damaged beyond repair; Harry opened his eyes and sent a pair of piercing curses at the basilisk which deflected easily of the tough hide and hit the ceiling. Harry gulped, this wasn't good.

No sword, no phoenix equals no backup plan, no way to stab the serpent through the mouth and no way to cure basilisk venom.

The oversized serpent crashed around the chamber obliterating pillars and wrecking the floors, using its other senses to search for its prey.

Harry sent a variety of curses including but not limited to destroying curses, more reductos, impaling curses, blasting curses, cutting curses, and even the occasional killing curse. Harry hated himself for every avada kedavra he cast but knew it was for the greater good.

Luckily, the ministry tracker on the wand was long gone, removed by one red haired girl.

Suddenly memories flew back to him, Ginny lying unconscious on the chamber ground, the Diagon Alley skirmish and finally and certainly the worst, the Malfoy manor raid.

Harry once again forced his memories away from him, but the moment of not moving gave his opponent the perfect chance to strike. Harry screamed as a basilisk fang pierced his right arm, venom entering his blood stream.

His vision blurred and the basilisk came in and out of focus, preparing to strike the killing blow.

Harry did not know how but finally found the strength to roll sideways, avoiding the attack by centimetres.

He could not help the tears that rolled out of his eyes, he was going to die. After all that he had been through, he was going to be killed by poison and a giant snake, which ever got to him first.

His trip through time was going to accomplish nothing. Harry was not going to stand for that, he was going to die fighting.

Grabbing his wand Harry aimed right as the basilisk opened its massive jaws ready to swallow him whole. "_Repugnantiae_!" Harry sent a perfectly focused piercing curse into the basilisk's mouth.

The beast shrieked in agony, as the curse hit and blasted the basilisk twenty metres backwards. Its internal organs destroyed by the curse, it died before it hit the floor.

Harry smiled; at least he managed to kill a basilisk before his untimely death.

As his vision began to fade completely, he saw a red spot, could it be possible?

He felt a few drops on his arms, then his vision started to clear and in front of him was a red phoenix. "Fawkes," Harry gasped and hugged the phoenix tight, ignoring the pain from his arms. Fawkes had saved the day, again.

"Don't tell your master alright?" Harry asked. Fawkes nodded in reply and flame teleported Harry out, ignoring all the apparition wards. Harry wondered why Fawkes had not done that the first time around.

Quickly healing his wound, Harry pushed open the portrait, much to the annoyance of the fat lady.

He entered the dorm quietly and laid down on his bed, falling asleep quickly.

_Flames_

_Harry rushed through the hallways, searching. Any death eater he encountered he either removed their heads or blew them up._

_The rush of adrenaline was equalling the despair he was feeling. Harry had teleported into Malfoy manor as soon as he heard about Ginny's capture._

_There was a spy in the order which had revealed the exact time which Ginny and McGonagall would go scouting and the ambush had killed the poor head of house and Ginny had been knocked out._

_Harry knew Voldemort was taunting him, torturing him with the thoughts of his girlfriend dying._

_They had Ginny!_

_He would rescue her at all costs; she was one of the few friends he had left. _

_He interrupted the patrol of death eaters by cutting them to pieces with Gryffindor's sword._

_The lone survivor he cast an imperious curse on the lead him to Ginny's cell. Using his victim as a shield, Harry had charged the dungeon and three death eaters died before they knew what hit them. _

_The other four cast killing curses which Harry dodged easily and decapitated two with a cry of "diffindo!" _

_The other two attempted to retreat but Harry cut them down with his sword._

_"__Don't move Potter!" someone yelled behind him. He turned to see Draco Malfoy holding Ginny at wand point._

_Ginny looked terrible, her beautiful red hair in tatters. Blood covered her arms and a massive gash ran up her leg. Chains bound her hands to the wall. Her thigh bone had been nearly shattered._

_"__Another step and she dies!" Draco threatened. _

_Harry stopped, fearing for Ginny's life. "Don't touch her!"_

_"__I had fun slowly torturing her," Draco taunted, "it was satisfying to watch her writher in agony knowing every second of her pain she was thinking about you!"_

_Harry's magic threatened to explode, but doing so would probably kill Ginny._

_Harry wanted to rip Malfoy into a thousand pieces but he must keep calm, losing control would have drastic consequences._

_"__You can't do much but threaten without your precious dark lord around can you?" Harry said with a sneer which would put Snape to shame. "All that grovelling must had reduced your magic a near squib's._

_That insult had gone too far._

_Draco's face become a perfect imitation of uncle Vernon, as purple as a plum._

_"__Avada Kedavra!" the sickly green light hit Ginny, and she fell to the floor, her warm brown eyes lifeless._

_Harry's magic exploded, completely destroying Draco and Malfoy manor. "GINNY!"_

Harry shot upwards, waking.

It was only a nightmare, but the shattering pain of losing his love was too much to bear, and Harry felt like crawling into a ball and crying. But he couldn't, he must stay strong.

He turned his head to find six people stare at him in fear. His accidental magic had eradicated half of the sixth year dormitory. Not in the mood to explain, Harry left without a sound.

_Flames_

Lily Evans hated mysteries and her most recent one was Harry Ashfire.

She was impressed that he had taken three cutting curses to protect a member of another house.

However, she was confused about his prowess in every subject and his ability to duel. The spells he had been able to cast were way beyond the abilities of a Hogwarts student. Lily knew that the dome shield was one of the most difficult and most draining shield spells but Ashfire had cast it without a second thought, like he used it often.

None of the other magical schools taught magic to such and advanced level.

Lily knew she a Snape were the best in potions and all the seventh years were below her level, but Ashfire had easily bested both of them.

Who was this person really?

It was plain obvious he wasn't in Hogwarts for a vacation, with a new dark lord on the rise and terrorists running around.

He must have a purpose, or he had no choice.

In the slug club, he had shown a particular interest in her, though definitely not a romantic one. It was almost as he knew her.

She observed this same reaction when Ashfire had encountered Sirius and James, his eyes had reflected a spark of recognition. He had seemed almost disappointed in them when tried to attack Snape.

When he had that nightmare which blew up half a dormitory Lily was convinced that Ashfire was definitely not a normal wizard. Accidental magic never went up to that level and the most powerful bouts of accidental magic came from surges of strong feelings.

That brings her to the next mystery, of the identity of this girl known as Ginny. He had yelled out her name with such pain in his voice it would have shattered glass.

Lily guessed that the trembling sounds and roaring of last night was also his contributions. By tomorrow, most of the school would probably dismiss it as a prank by the marauders but Lily knew better.

Lily had a ability other wizards and witches had never had, Eidetic memory and she witnessed all four trouble makers go to bed but she had never seen Ashfire enter.

Studying potions was hard work and it was nearly midnight when she went to bed yet Ashfire still didn't return.

Lily had most of the students in Hogwarts figured out but Ashfire was her next equation to solve.

She vowed to get to know him and find out more.

As she walked down to breakfast, she saw the fantastic four ahead of her, they didn't notice Lily.

The sixth year boys were still quite shaken from their encounter with Harry's burst of accidental magic. Gideon was flung clean to the other side of the room and northern side of the dormitory had been completely destroyed.

As the Prewitt twins rushed off to breakfast, the incident pushed aside by the thought of food, the marauders stayed behind.

"Who is Ginny?" James wondered.

"From his cry of pain, I can perceive that Ginny was someone close to Ashfire and she must have died in an accident due to the mutterings." Lupin said in matter of fact tone.

"What mutterings?"

"After he woke, he kept saying, she's dead she's dead in a hushed tone."

"Maybe she died in a broom accident?" Peter wondered.

"Probably some death eater comrade," Sirius spat, his pride was still wounded from Harry throwing him off easily.

Sirius was instantly hit by a knockback jinx which threw him into a wall.

"Don't speak that!" Remus growled harshly, much like his werewolf form. "He had obviously lost someone close to him and his still having nightmares! Your pains are nothing compared to his!"

"My family hates me and treats me like an outcast! I apparently tainted the family name when I became a Gryffindor and now I'm just a reject!" Sirius shot back furiously.

Close behind, Lily heard the whole conversation.


	7. Phoenix fire

Chapter 6 Phoenix fire

Harry sat in his favourite spot in the common room, thinking about his past, err, future.

He now regretted listening to Ron about going easy on his learning, If only he had paid more attention to his studies in his first three years, he might have defeated Voldemort before he came to power.

Hermione had been right, skiving off your studies had serious consequences.

However, that wasn't what he was supposed to be thinking about at the moment.

What was inside the chamber that had a thousand year old basilisk guard it?

The previous day, he had gone into the chamber again and shouted forty different parseltongue phrases but had finally drawn a blank.

There had to have been something in the chamber, he was very sure Slytherin wasn't stupid enough to keep a basilisk in Hogwarts for the sole purpose of 'cleansing' the school.

"Hey Ashfire, want to play a game of chess?" Remus asked as he sat down next to him.

"Sure, why not?" Harry agreed, absentmindedly.

Harry already had all his dorm mates and completely figured out, he had grown much more observant during his time as a convict in his fifth year.

**James Potter **

A person very similar to Draco Malfoy, except he was exceptionally mean towards Slytherins instead of muggleborn.

Strengths: Very fast wand draw and can cast spells very quickly.

Weaknesses: Has an extreme obsession towards Lily Evans.

**Sirius Black**

Like James, believes all Slytherins are untrustworthy. Very suspicious towards others due to his dark background.

Strengths: Is capable of many Black family exclusive spells

Weaknesses: Can't keep control of his temper.

**Remus Lupin**

A very gentle and bookwormish person despite being a werewolf.

Strengths: Very observative much like Harry.

Weaknesses: Hates Violence and avoids fights, a trait that gets people killed.

**Peter Pettigrew**

Very shy and is covered by the shadow of his best friends. He was nothing like the traitor that he became in Harry's future.

Strengths: His animagus form allows a quick escape.

Weaknesses: Easily scared and runs quickly.

**Gideon Prewett**

Very, very much like Fred and George though not as famous for their pranking skills due to the Marauders.

Strengths: Has a deadly arsenal of prank based weaponry.

Weaknesses: Not a very good dueller.

**Fabian Prewett**

See above.

As he was thinking, he did not notice the fact that he was destroying Lupin and had already captured two rooks, two knights, one bishop and half the pawns. He also did not notice Lupin gaping in a rather accurate depiction of a goldfish.

Three moves later, Harry's queen was dragging the opposing king off the board. In fact, that was probably the only game of wizarding chess Harry ever won.

"How, how," Remus was stuttering. No one had ever beaten him in chess, ever.

Harry was thinking about his parents and other student in his year level when Remus still sat their staring at the board in horror.

James and Sirius quickly noticed Remus' first loss.

"Finally met your match I see? Get it? Match?" Sirius smirked.

"That was a very bad pun, even worse then the 'Sirius' ones," Remus replied sullenly.

Then James saw Remus' opponent. "You, Ashfire again," James said resentfully.

Harry his thoughts to see two glowering Gryffindors.

Why do they hate me so much? Harry thought angrily. It wasn't like I did anything to upset them. If Harry had known their reason for their resentment, he would have laughed.

But at the moment there as no laughing matter.

"Shove off Potter, I see you and Black must have failed miserably again? Your so called 'pranks are cruel and not even funny. Your just bigoted pureblood like Avery and Mulcifer." Harry sneered in an even more accurate depiction of Snape. He meant every word.

Then Sirius did what he did best, lose his temper. "Get out of the house of lions you slimy snake! I've seen that snake you carry around with you. The last person to talk to snakes is the dark lord himself! Your no Gryffindor, a Gryffindor defends his own housemates, not the others!"

The common room was so quiet a pin drop could be heard.

Crud.

Now all of Gryffindor were going to view him with suspicion because he was a parseltongue. So much for keeping a low profile.

Then, James did the unthinkable. He insulted Harry's friends.

"I now see why you have no friends, you're a delusional psychopath who gets everyone killed. Anyone willing to be your friend must be either insane or just like you.

Harry was speechless.

Painful memories surfaced,

**Flashback**

_"__Go, go!" Neville yelled, shooting several curses at the pursuing death eaters. Luna shot a barrage of arrows into the death eater horde, killing two of them. Ahead of them Harry cut down any defenders with his sword._

_Neville had claimed Mcnair's axe after he killed him months earlier and was now putting it to great use. Harry thought it was ironic that an axe used for disposing 'dangerous creatures' was now being used to decapitate death eaters._

_Luna continued to summon a range of projectiles which quickly found their mark._

_The trio had to duck as a wave of killing curses shot over their heads._

_"__Remind me where we're here again?" Neville inquired._

_"__We need to find Dumbledore's artefacts and this is our best bet. The Peverells were Dumbledore's ancestors and only he had access to here, until he died of course." Luna answered. Then she added. "We might find a crumpled horn snorlack if we're lucky."_

_Luna was the least changed by the war, still as abnormal as she was in Hogwarts._

_She was the least affected by death, having seen her mother die at the age of nine. Death, to her, was nothing. Harry silently admired her bravery._

_Neville had summoned devil's snare in the corridor and did a pretty good job of keeping the death eaters out. _

_As the three continued in the halls of Peverell manor. _

_The manor was positively enormous. The wards on the mansion had weakened due to Dumbledore's death and Voldemort had managed to break the wards after three days. Harry and the others had snuck in but were seen._

_Suddenly, a reductor curse hit the wall abolishing the corridor. _

_The trio ran, avoiding collapsing corridor._

_Death eaters burst through the new hole, encouraged by Voldemort. "You can't run forever Potter!"_

_"__There! The study!" Luna broke the enchantments surrounding the door in two seconds and they were in. Harry seized the various books and threw them into his bottomless backpack._

_Neville had just grabbed some strange silver objects when Voldemort crashed throught the door._

_"__Sanguinem ulcus!" The blood boiling curse hit Neville before he could scream. However in one final act of courage before death, Mcnair's axe left Neville's hand before the corpse hit the ground and struck Voldemort in the leg._

_That gave the opportunity for Luna to grab Harry and explode their way out of the manor._

_To escape, they needed to escape the portkey wards and teleport back to Grimmaud place. Harry was in a state of shock as they escaped the failing wards._

_They both touched their respective portkeys as a wave of killing curses flew towards them._

_"__We lost Neville," Harry said dead toned. _

_He looked around at Luna to see her with a small smile on her face. "Luna?" She didn't move. A killing curse had hit as she touched her portkey. _

_"__LUNA!"_

The grief and guilt of losing two of his best friends came back. Harry had suffered from survivor's guilt for another two weeks and didn't participate in any order missions.

As soon as the grief passed, red hot rage rose within him, no one insulted his friends' sacrifices.

Harry's rage was ejected in one word, "INCENDIO!"

Instead of the small flame that the spell usually made, Harry's phoenix flames took over and James was bathed in a wave of fire.

Pain was all James could fill, every fibre of his body burned and his wand had already turned to ash.

If wasn't for Remus' quick thinking, James would have died in the next second.

"Augimenti!" James' smoking body fell to the floor, the fire put out.

The rest of Gryffindors looked at Harry in horror who glared back.

"Get him to madam Pomfrey!" Lily screamed, shocking the others out of their horror.

Harry stalked off, ignoring the havoc he caused.

_Flames_

"May I asked you why you nearly killed Mr Potter?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes definitely not twinkling.

"He had burns all over his body! It will take weeks to heal and he will limp for another month!" madam Pomfrey yelled.

Professor McGonagall was staring at Harry in shock, she was amazed by the damage a sixth year boy had managed to cause.

Harry did what he did best, remain silent.

"What made you attack Mr Potter?"

"He insulted my friends, sir."

"Surely shooting fire at him is an over reaction?"

"All my friends are dead."

There was a silence in the room as Harry's words sunk in. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall were shocked about Harry's past.

"What curse did you use?" Dumbledore inquired. Don't try to lie was the hidden understatement.

"Incendio sir." Harry answered without raising his head.

"The truth Mr Ashfire, incendio would never do so much damage."

**"****He is telling the truth," Fawkes told Dumbledore.**

"Fawkes says that you did use incendio, how did you manage to nearly kill Mr Potter with such a simple spell?" Dumbledore was unaware Harry could understand phoenix speak.

When Harry didn't answer, Dumbledore continued, "I am very disappointed in you, if you continue such behaviour, I will be forced to expel you."

"Never have I seen such bad behaviour," McGonagall shouted, "fifty points from Gryffindor and detention every week for two months!"

Things went downhill from there.

_Flames_

After an extremely depressing talk with Professor Dumbledore involving why 'turning dark' is bad and how students should never join dark wizards, Harry walked along the second floor corridor.

He couldn't bare returning to the common room and went to his sanctuary, the chamber.

**"****Master is very depressed," said Nagini, concerned. **

**"****It's probably all starting again, the rumors that I'm Slytherin's heir with the bonus of being called Voldemort's son," Harry said bitterly.**

**"****I finally get to known my father and I find out he is nothing more than a bullying git. My godfather, who I missed dearly, hates my guts."**

**"****Give them time, hopefully it will die down in a month," Nagini tried to cheer Harry up.**

Suddenly, a burst of flames revealed Fawkes.

**"****Fawkes?" Harry said with surprise.**

**"****Greetings phoenix animagi."**

**"****Hello winged one," Nagini hissed a greeting.**

**"****You two can understand each other?"**

**"****The tongue of phoenixes and the tongue of serpents is exactly the same, just in a different tone." Fawkes said, amused.**

Harry started rolling on the floor laughing and stayed there for five minutes.

**"****What I have come to discuss with you however, is controlling your phoenix flames." Harry immediately stopped laughing, guilty that he had very nearly killed his father.**

**"****Phoenixes have two notable fire abilities, teleportation and flame attack. Teleportation ignores all wards but the user must be extremely focused in their intended location. That is why it is almost impossible to teleport in battle."**

**"****Have there been other phoenix animagi?" Harry asked.**

**"****Godric Gryffindor was a phoenix animagus. Merlin was another. The last phoenix animagus since you was Glen Potter."**

**"****How do you know so much about phoenix animagi?"**

**"****I have been familiar to all three phoenix animagi."**

**"****Oh."**

**"****The strongest flame attacks are summoned with pure emotions, happiness, grief, even rage. However, losing control of your flames because of anger will kill you."**

Harry realised how close he came to dying.

**"****Using fire based spells while channelling phoenix fire multiplies the attack tenfold. Fire making charm, fire rope spell and the firestorm curse are all good opportunities to use phoenix fire. The most destructive use of phoenix fire was fiendfyre, Merlin used it to raze an entire city to the ground."**

**"****Will I be able to wield such power?"**

**"****In time when you build up more magic reserves."**

**"****What weaknesses does a phoenix animagus have?"**

**"****Phoenixes cannot abide water. Strong gusts of wind can put out your fires. Be aware that in your phoenix form, touching water will cause great damage to your magic."**

**"****Thank you Fawkes, you taught me more then I learnt in the library in a month."**

**"****My bonded is calling, goodbye."**

Nagini snuggled into Harry's robes and he left the chamber, thinking about all the things Fawkes had told him.


	8. Secrets and legacies

Chapter 7 Secrets and legacies

Harry was not having a good day.

Sirius announcing that Harry could talk to snakes became well known to everyone in the school at breakfast.

'The heir of Slytherin' fiasco was starting all over again, Gryffindors were pointing fingers at his back and rumors were wide spread.

The worst case scenario was that some pampered pureblood slytherin would write about this to their death eater father he would report the 'other heir' to Mr I think I am so cool, aka Voldemort.

The last thing Harry needed was Voldemort breathing down his back while Harry went on his mission to hunt horcruxes with less information than a deaf bat.

Harry enjoyed Hogwarts as just a regular students who wouldn't be looked at twice, but his luck was not to last. Sure his days at the boy-who-lived had been terrible but being the boy-who-must-be-Voldemort's-heir is lot worse.

In usual circumstances, Sirius would be gloating.

However, James was still not out of the hospital wing and Sirius would go to visit every afternoon.

Harry felt extremely guilty at injuring his father to the point of an estimated month in the hospital wing.

Harry kept Nagini close by him at all times in case a Gryffindor tries to show off and kills her.

Despite attempts by Nagini to cheer him up, Harry felt miserable. His only retreat was the chamber which he took refuge in. Despite hours of search, Harry still could nit find Slytherin's stash.

Even in class, the teachers looked hostilely at him.

Here's the Sirius Black commentator speech before the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match, "Thanks to an unprovoked attack on one of our chasers, James Potter, Gryffindor is at a disadvantage. If we lose the match, we know whose fault it is."

No prize for guessing who Sirius blamed?

Harry disposed of the basilisk carcass, he knew he could make a fortune from that but he didn't dare sell them in worry of being found out and he knew that he slew a basilisk to make the school safer, not to earn money.

With the basilisk removed, Harry spent hours repairing the floors and pillars while using his runes skill to create several enchantment and wards that were obliterated by the basilisk.

Every night, Harry would go to the chamber after curfew.

However, just to be safe, he created an illusion of himself sleeping.

Harry practiced his spell work, potion brewing skill, phoenix fire, ward breaking and sword fighting, pretty much everything that would give him an edge in combat.

He was so good in runes that he could tell what enchantments and wards were placed by just looking.

He thought about when he was in first year, innocent, carefree and peaceful. Sire, Voldemort tried to kill him but at least he had friends.

What was he now?

He had killed hundreds of people brutally even killing death eaters which were already defeated.

Was he a dealer of justice or a murdering demon?

Harry found he had become quite adept with his enchanted knife, good enough to slit throats in dark alleys.

Harry knew eventually, Voldemort would take notice of him. He used every day he had like the last. The professors were astounded by his ability in every subject, except for history of magic when Harry spent his time reading.

He had surpassed both Snape and Lily in potions and no one could defeat him in DADA.

However, that just added credibility that he was a dark wizard and there were rumours he was Voldemort's heir. Harry swore that he had seen professors trailing him.

Luckily, Lupin ignored these rumours and became good friends with Harry, isolating himself from the Marauders. James and Sirius insulted him at every opportunity, while holding their wands of course.

So it was that night when Harry came down to the library to find Lupin missing.

Odd. He had always been in the library this month at 6'o clock straight. Maybe he was on a prancing session, or doing a project, Harry knew that his prefect duties were after curfew.

Harry thought about going down to the chamber but instead decided he should get some fresh air. Transforming into a golden phoenix, Harry flew into the night.

He swooped near the branches of the forbidden forest and down the quidditch pitch.

Then, he saw it, Severus Snape running down to the whomping willow when he remembered. It was the night of the full moon, and there was a werewolf in the shrieking shack!

Flying down, he saw a stag sprinting towards the whomping willow. But it was too late. Snape had already made it through.

Harry tried to flame travel to the shrieking shack but failed because he was panicking too much. What if Snape died? Remus would be executed as a dangerous creature!

Harry was forced to follow Snape into the shack.

Snape heard the roar of a werewolf. Intrigued, he tried to look through a crack in the door. Big mistake. The werewolf smelled him a charged at the door, throwing Snape backwards. Harry flew at the werewolf, knocking it backwards.

Snape attempted to escape but three animagi, a stag, a dog and a rat came through the door.

The tunnel collapsed behind him. The werewolf lunged again, missing Snape by a few inches. Snape tried to fire a spell but the werewolf snapped the wand clean in half.

Harry blocked the werewolf's incoming strike and winced when a claw cut his wing. Having no choice, Harry transformed back into human form just as the werewolf reared to strike again. "Petrificus totalus!" The werewolf fell to the ground.

Harry glared at the three animagi, "You can turn back to human now."

The said animagi transformed back.

"You're a phoenix animagus." Peter said, astonished. Behind him, Snape fainted, this was too much for him.

"How did you know Remus was a werewolf?" James inquired.

"How did Snape know how to get here was the question I was looking for," Harry snarled.

"I told him," said Sirius.

"Did not occur to you that if Remus managed to bite or kill Snape, have would have executed as a dangerous creature?"

The look on Sirius' face said it all.

The look on Harry's face was starting to get dangerous, "You risked the life of one of your friends and a classmate to play a PRANK?"

"Who are you to tell us what to do?" James snapped.

"Well, murdering classmates is alright then?" Harry yelled, probably waking half the village. "I'm the only one who can get you back to Hogwarts without you getting expelled!"

"What?" Peter began to say then remembered.

They were in Hogsmeade and with the tunnel collapsed, they couldn't get back. The Hogwarts gate was made so that only with permission would you have access.

"How are you going to get us back into Hogwarts?" Sirius asked.

"Phoenixes teleport, duh."

"How come you're a magical creature animagi?" James asked, forgetting his anger.

"None of your business. Don't mention my abilities to anyone, not even to Dumbledore. Understood?"

Sirius was about to say something when Harry cut him off.

"Swear an oath or else I'm leaving you here, and I'm telling Professor Dumbledore that you three are animagi."

The three swore their oathes immediately, except for Remus, who was still a werewolf.

Harry pointed his wand at the passed out Snape and uttered, "Obliviate!"

"Finite incantem!"

Before they could utter another word, Harry grabbed them and disappeared in a flash of flame.

_Flames_

After leaving the three marauders in the dorms, Remus in a very securely locked classroom which would only open at six and Snape in the Slytherin dorm, Harry flamed to the chamber.

He really needed sometime alone, fighting werewolves a close quarters was stressful.

It was by pure luck that Harry found Slytherin's hidden loot, a droplet of blood fell from his shoulder and hit the floor, activating the entrance.

A large door appeared in the chamber.

The entrance, was of course, a snake's head, how surprising, not.

Inside was a massive library, even a massive tapestry. In the corner was an assortment of enchanted weapons, swords, axes, spears, pretty much anything. The room to the right was a training room filled with unbreakable dummies.

On a pedestal in the middle surrounded by bookshelves, was **"Nagini?"**

"**Yes master?"**

"**How come you didn't tell me about here?"**

"**I assumed you already knew."**

"**I spent days searching the chamber!"**

"**I thought you were building wards, sorry master."**

"**No worries," Harry sighed,**

Harry investigated the family tree.

At the top was Eldanas Slytherin, going down to Merlin Slytherin, branching down to Acwellen Slytherin and then to Salazar Slytherin. At bottom of the list was Thomas Slytherin, died 1311.

Harry chuckled, Voldemort spent so long denying his own name when it was the name of his last recorded ancestor. Merlin himself was actually Salazar's grandfather? Harry imagined the faces of the Gryffindors when that came out.

Harry went over to wipe some dust of the tapestry when amazingly, a whole new name appeared.

A name branched out form Thomas Slytherin, forming the name Harry Potter.

The rumours were right after all. He actually was the heir of Slytherin. His father, who despised Slytherins so much was descended from the founder himself? That's just amusing.

Suddenly, a green letter with a picture of a snake written in silver ink appeared. On it read To Lord Slytherin, from Gringotts.

Harry nearly had a heart attack reading the letter.

_**Lord Slytherin,**_

_**The ancient and most noble house of Potter**_

_**The ancient and most noble house of Black**_

_**The primordial and most powerful house of Slytherin.**_

_**Welcome to 1975, I hope you like it here after your time travel journey. I do not need to know why you have decided to time travel but is said to be impossible, so I assume it was an accident or the use of a magical artefact. **_

_**Do you have any idea what you have done? **_

_**Your time travel journey through time has forced you to claim the titles of both Lord Potter and Lord Black. I do not need to know how a 'light' family has claimed the titles of two dark families, but you have caused the anger of two of my clients, former lord Charlus Potter and former lord Orion Black.**_

_**They cannot attend the Wizengamot which has made to council uneven due to the loss of two lord seats.**_

_**The reason you have managed to get these two seats is because the claim to lordship is based on achievement, and since you were born twenty years later, caused the enchantments to assume you are older than both Lord Potter and Lord Black.**_

_**This has caused many disturbances and confusions and we need you to sort them out.**_

_**You cannot give back your lordship short of giving it to someone younger than you, and neither Charlus Potter, Orion Black, James Potter nor Sirius Black fit.**_

_**Luckily, your interaction with the Slytherin family tapestry has caused us to be able to send this letter to you.**_

_**I assure you that being a descendant of a founder of Gringotts, Erridin Potter, I will keep all of your secrets and give you the utmost respect I can give you.**_

_**There is also the matter of the Slytherin vaults, which have remained closed since one Tom Riddle entered.**_

_**He also attempted to lay claim to the Lord Slytherin title but as he was not whole due to his horcruxes, his claim has been denied.**_

_**We require your presence to discuss many important matters.**_

_**Lord Ragnuk**_

_**Council of high goblins**_

_**Leader of financial branch**_

Harry felt some relief when it said that his secrets would be kept, but was astonished that he had taken the lordship of two ancient houses and one primordial house.

He was sure primordial meant something like before time or something.

The hard part was getting Dumbledore to agree without the headmaster realising what he was getting up to.

Putting matters to the back of his head, he flamed into his bed, complete with silencing charms, for some well deserved rest.

_Flames_

**Flashback**

"_Bring down Malfoy manor at all costs!" the leading order of phoenix member, Alastor Moody yelled. _

_The rest of the order of phoenix members followed, charging into the battlefield. _

_Killing curses hit the ground around them, but they did not pause_

_Since the death of Molly, Ginny and the twins, Arthur had become a demon, he took pleasure in killing his victims painfully and no one could stop him, not even Bill. The other order members were too afraid to approach him._

_In the corner of his eye was insanity, the look of a man who knew he wasn't sane but didn't care._

_He had taken to using Molly's meat cleaver in combat, not even bothering to cast spells._

_Astonishingly, every curse cast at him missed like he had drank felix felicis._

_He charged into the death eater ranks, cleaving them into pieces with every strike._

_The order members took advantage of the panic and cut down some more with spells. No one bothered to use stunning spells anymore._

_Unfortunately, their luck was not to last._

"_Reducto!" Tonks fell to the ground, a bloody hole where her heart used to be. Bellatrix stood with a grin on her face._

"_Avada Kedavra!" Harry snarled. The black was astonished to see the 'Gryffindor golden boy' use an unforgivable and was too late dodging._

_Harry returned to the fight, slicing death eaters to the ground._

_Arthur Weasley had just despatched the Carrow siblings before Lucius Malfoy walked up to him._

"_Diffindo!"_

_Arthur collapsed, a bloody gash in his throat._

_Lucius sneered victoriously when Arthur suddenly gained what muggles called dead man's strength, an unnatural strength gained only when near death._

_Arthur smashed Lucius to the ground and stomped on his throat until his jugular was broken and fell down dead as his enemy._

_Ron howled in grief._

"_Burn the manor and run!" Alastor called._

_Several order members cast whatever burning spell they could think of before they retreated._

Harry woke from his nightmares which were as vivid as ever.

He was sure if not for the silencing charms his dormates would have woken from his screams. Harry didn't fall asleep for another six hours.


	9. Inheritance

Chapter 8 Inheritance

James sat beside the window, thinking.

He thought about his history with Harry Ashfire. James had been the one to find him. Now the flames made so much sense, he was a phoenix animagus!

He remembered the struggle to contain the animal within him, that was the hard part of the transformation. He nearly lost control several times, especially in the presence of Snape. James remembered trying to head-butt Snape, it had been amusing until McGonagall caught him.

James thought about Ashfire's overpowered incendio, Harry was a phoenix animagus, it was logical that he would have better fire spells. Aren't phoenixes all light creatures? How Ashfire had obtained a magical animagus was still a mystery.

Perhaps he had lost control of his animagus and struck instinctively. Unbeknownst to most, James was extremely intelligent though he did not act like it

He tried to remember what had ticked Ashfire off. Nothing came to him. James frowned, he had a photographic memory which would make Lily Evans feel jealous.

Now that he put thought into it, his own behaviour didn't make sense, he had never been prejudiced towards a single person before. It was as if something was controlling him. Just as soon as the thought came, it was sucked back out.

James had suspicions on why Sirius hated Ashfire.

Now that he thought about it, Harry Ashfire was a true Gryffindor, not many would try to block threcutting curses nor fight a werewolf on the full moon.

His parseltongue abilities didn't meant he was evil, believing that would be like believing Remus was evil because he was a werewolf.

James tried to think of reason he hated Ashfire for the past few weeks but couldn't get a complete conclusion. It was like a slippery fish, unable to get a firm hold. It wasn't because of the same reason as Snivellus, for having a crush on Lily or vice versa.

Just then, someone interrupted him. "Alright?"

He looked up to see Ashfire looking at him apologetically. James frowned slightly, he had never had that expression before.

"Would be enough to say I'm really, really sorry?"

"Nope, after all you did send me to the hospital wing for two weeks."

Harry noted as a positive note that James wasn't angry.

"How did you get out of the hospital wing anyway? I heard Madam Pomfrey say that it would be two months before you got out." Harry was attempting the keep this conversation friendly despite the fact that Harry nearly killed James two weeks ago.

"Ahh, Marauder trade secrets involving a bit of Potter charm."

So far so good, thought Harry.

"I lost control of my temper and nearly killed you with a fire making charm taught in first year, and for that I give you my most sincere apologies and I promise not to accidently almost kill you again." Sure, it was the most pathetic apology ever but Harry could not think of anything better.

James was trying to say that nothing could make up for nearly burning him alive but instead heard himself saying, "I accept your apology." Damn his Gryffindor nobility!

"Really?" Harry said hopefully.

"No. You are going to have to make it up to me first."

Harry groaned, he knew a marauder would always take opportunities to annoy. However, he knew that he should be grateful that his father had taken his apology, how often did you forgive someone for nearly killing you?

"Name your price."

"Well, you're going to have to prank all of Slytherin on Sundays for the next month, Sirius and I are going to practice quidditch." James was letting his marauder side out.

"You have detention that day."

"Crud."

"How come you can't get someone else to do it?"

"They can't get into the Slytherin common room."

"What makes you think I can do it?"

"You're a dark wizard."

Harry gave him the 'are you kidding me' look.

"Fine, I just think you're exceptionally stealthy, you're good enough to throw Sirius off your trail."

"Speaking of Sirius, why did he hate my guts so much?"

"James winced, "Your dark hair, complexion and green eyes reminds Sirius painfully oh his brother."

"Sirius' brother has green eyes? What does he have to do with anything?"

"Regulus was the perfect Black prince, Orion and Walburga Black adored him. He was adept in the ways and beliefs of a pureblood and is good at everything. Sirius used to be very close to his brother, until he was sorted into Gryffindor. He challenged Regulus in a duel, determined to show he was better. Guess who won?"

"So Sirius is disliked in his home?"

"One could argue that knowing your parents don't love you is worse than losing them. Sirius attempts to bury his past at Hogwarts where he is happy until the summer holidays. Your presence denies him of that peace."

"So he loathes me because I look like Regulus."

"Yeah."

That reminded Harry his relationship with Snape who possessed an undying hatred of his father.

They were both silent for a few moments.

"So, deal?"

"Deal."

They shook hands.

Harry was pleased, he had James couldn't be called friends yet but he was coming a long way from being worse enemies.

As James walked away, Harry saw him finger a red and gold pendant carved with the head of a golden lion mid-roar.

Neither Potter knew yet, but James' pendant contained a shard of pure evil.

_Flames_

Harry spent his morning thinking about how to get Professor McGonagall to let him go to Gringotts. In the end, he decided on a method no wizard had tried before. Forgery. It was a well known that the Gringotts seals and letters was immune to copy charms but no wizard had every bothered to manually imitate the seal. This trick wouldn't work on a Mad eye Moody but should work on McGonagall.

So Harry spent his history of magic class practicing goblin handwriting and spent transfiguration, after completing the set task, imitating the Gringotts seal.

By the time he got to herbology class, he had successfully created his own Gringotts letter.

_**Dear Mr Potter,**_

_**We have found that you are the one of the magical beings in Britain who does not own any vaults nor any family vaults and you are needed to create one.**_

_**Please come to Gringotts on the 7**__**th**__** of December.**_

_**You're sincerely, **_

_**Griphook**_

Harry had never received a normal Gringotts letter before so he was unsure if goblins were polite to a non-lord. He put the name of the first goblin he met at the bottom.

When he showed this letter to McGonagall at dinner, she didn't look too closely at the letter and saw no flaws.

So the next day, he went to the headmaster's office to use the Hogwart's private floo.

The password he had been told was Chocolate frogs.

How had the headmaster still have all his teeth after eating so much candy?

"Professor Dumbledore will be with you shortly," a portrait told him.

As Harry wandered around the office gazing at Professor Dumbledore's equipment, Fawkes flew onto his shoulder.

"**Hello again human phoenix time traveler."**

"**Good to see you Fawkes."**

"**What has Dumbledore been up to lately?"**

"**The usual, recruiting members for his order and engaging political wars."**

"**Political wars?"**

"**The death eater members of the ministry and the bribed members of the ministry are trying to get Dumbledore removed. They have succeeded because of the trust placed in Dumbledore by the public."**

"**So who is in the order?"**

"**Charlus and Dorea Potter, Aberforth Dumbledore, Dorcas Meadow, Alastor Moody, Emmeline Vance, Arthur Weasley, Edgar Bones, Dedalus Diggle, Rubeus Hagrid, Mundungus Fletcher, Marlenne McKinnon, Sturgis Podmore, Elphias Doge, Stephan Wilkinson and Eric Mirfield.**

"**I was wondering why there have been only four phoenix animagi ever."**

"**Did you really think hard work was all it required to become a phoenix animagi? If so, there would be hundreds that would could become phoenix animagi. No, the wizard must be devoted to the greater good of the wizarding and muggle world and must have no selfish intentions. Very few actually meet that standard."**

"**So can't my best friends fulfil that requirement?"**

"**The stronger the animagus former, the harder it is to be controlled. A phoenix animagi is ten times harder to master than a stag. The wizard must have enough magical power at least five times of a normal wizard. Most of the time, magical power is passed on through the family. Both your parents are powerful."**

"**Wasn't Lord Voldemort the bastard son of a muggle and a squib?"**

"**He worked hard to amass enough magical power to rival the heir of ancient families."**

"**Thanks Fawkes. Hey what's that?"**

Harry saw ancient looking wooden cabinet with intricate gold decorations. From ten metres away, Harry could few the magic rolling of the cabinet in waves. There were at least ten different wards on the cabinet.

Harry used his magical senses to locate the object. It was the sword of Gryffindor. More accurately, his sword of Gryffindor. He could sense the magical blood of a basilisk and feel the magic contained within the imbedded rubies in the sword.

Then he felt misdirection wards and forgetful wards on the object directed at himself.

Harry bristled with anger, the old coot had made him forget about the sword entirely! If he had the sword in his basilisk battle, he would have taken it down quickly.

The amount of protection on the cabinet had been what alerted Harry and let him break through the misdirection and forgetful wards.

Acting quickly, he dispelled the wards and took out the sword. Then he transfigured a conjured stone into a copy of the sword, without the magic.

Then he replaced the wards on the cabinet using rune stones on his pockets and shut the cabinet. He shrunk down the sword and put it in his pocket.

"**Quite devious my friend," Fawkes said amused.**

"**Don't tell the old man okay?"**

"**I'll take the secrets to my ashes."**

Dumbledore was quite surprised to see Fawkes sitting on Harry's arm. It was a well known fact that phoenixes could not abide wizards with evil intents. Seeing that put many of his worries about the new student to rest.

_Flames_

Ten minutes later, Harry was at Gringotts. Apparently, the goblins already knew his appointment with Lord Ragnuk because they didn't ask questions and let him through.

Five corridors later, he found the sign, 'head of financial branch office'.

Harry tapped on the doorknocker twice before a gruff voice said, "Enter."

"We're here to discuss the matters of your three lordships. As I told you in the letter, the former Lord Potter and former Lord Black are less than impressed."

"How come I have the lordship anyway?"

"The goblins archives only records the years that have already happened. Since you're born in the future, the archives could not record your date of birth therefore proclaiming you older than all the other lords."

"In your letter you said I have to give the lordship to someone younger than me right? So shouldn't I be able to pass it back?"

"Since your date of birth is not recorded, it means your age is registered as unknown and you will be unable to pass on your lordships until you've passed your date of birth which will update according to the number of years in the past. So if you were born in 1977 and you are eighteen now, then two years later your birth date will be registered as 1957."

"That won't happen if I travel back to my original time?"

"The future will have changed due to you being in the past. Besides, do you know how you got here and even have an inkling of an idea of how to reverse it?"

"Well, no."

"You should make the most of your time in the past. But now back to the matter at hand, how will you deal with the Potter and Black lordship?"

"What do I get from it?"

"You have complete control over the ancestral homes and can deny access to people, remove members of the family and can cast two votes at the wizengamot. Do you have any ideas to deal with this problem my lord?"

"I propose that I assign the two former lords as my proxies and give them all the power of lordship except that cannot be used against me anyway. Then I can inform that it was a goblin archive overload."

"Cunning enough to put the Malfoys to shame. That is a brilliant solution. You must have done your research."

"Actually, I came up with that idea on the spot."

"Would you like to visit the Slytherin vaults my lord?"

"Sure."

Ragnuk clicked his fingers and said a word in goblin tongue.

A massive flight of stairs appeared from the wall, leading down straight into the labyrinth of vaults and tunnels.

"How come I had to ride a cart down during my visits to Gringotts?" Harry whined.

"This luxury is used only for powerful individuals only."

"That explains a lot."

Ragnuk knew his ways around the vaults like the back of his hand. On their way, Harry saw at least ten dragons, hundreds of goblin warriors and even a couple of small settlements.

At Harry's astounded look, Ragnuk told him, "We have an entire civilisation down here. Where did you think goblins lived?"

Ragnuk proceeded to explain to Harry about the Slytherin family's involvement in goblin history, Salazar's alliance with the goblins and Thomas' financial backing which allowed the goblins to build the Gringotts bank. "Sadly, the entire family disappeared in 1311 with the death of Thomas Slytherin. Some speculate that the family mixed with muggles."

"Slytherin family go mix with muggles?" Harry said disbelievingly.

"Those were dangerous times, war was everywhere and it was a time when magic wasn't a secret. I believe Thomas was assassinated by a muggle archer."

"My mother was muggleborn."

"You're probably descended from her as blood tests have never shown any pureblood nor half-blood as a Slytherin descendant."

The Slytherin vault was, not surprisingly, carved with the head of a giant snake. "What's with the snake addiction?"

When the vault opened, Harry gasped with surprise.

No it wasn't massive mountains of gold.

In the centre was piles upon piles of jewels, from diamond to topaz. At the corner were racks full of magical weapons, spears, swords, axes, the lot.

But that wasn't the things that caught Harry's attention, it were the books. Seven bookshelves contained ancient books with knowledge nearly completely lost. There was even a crate with Salazar's personal diaries with entries on his travels and Hogwarts.

Harry had learnt that knowledge contained wealth beyond gold.

"Call me when you're ready," Ragnuk called.

Harry switched the knife he bought to Salazar's knife. Sure, it'll make people think he was a dark wizard but he didn't care.

Then he flamed to the chamber with the diaries and back again.

"Ready," he called.

"My lord, do you ever have thoughts which you feel aren't yours? Do you experience sudden change of emotions or have short lasted guilt?"

Harry was about to say no but remembered the hatred aimed at his father, the sudden switch between anger and happiness and guilt which lasted like two seconds. Was he becoming a psychopath? "Yes."

"That's not good."


End file.
